Farmers pass up chance for greenie back-scratching

It was a meeting of bodies, if not of minds, when NSW Greens MP Ian Cohen and NSW Farmers' Association president Mal Peters made almost simultaneous announcements in Maquarie Street yesterday.

First up was Mr Cohen, who, in outlining the Greens' major policy points for the state election, quipped that "if you scratch a farmer you find a greenie".

Mr Peters, who arrived to hear the end of the announcement, responded minutes later by releasing the association's "parliamentary report card" on how parties have voted over the last term on rural legislation.

It gave the Greens zero out of five, the ALP and the Democrats two, while the Coalition scored five out of five along with the Shooters Party and the Outdoor Recreation Party, the head of which was recently accused of misusing his electoral allowance to set up bogus minor parties.

The parties were judged on whether they backed the association's position on five bills in the last three years, including legislation on threatened species conservation, the creation of National Parks, water management and worker's compensation.

But Mr Peters has given the parties a chance to redeem themselves, with the association to release, before the next election, the results of a survey of politicians and their voting intentions for the next term.

"Hopefully the Labor Party can come out more positively on the second report card, with a more positive approach to rural issues," he said.

Mr Peters rejected the suggestion that the association was seeking to coerce politicians before the election.

"All we're about is making sure that rural NSW can make a factual assessment of the last four years of this Parliament, and then make an assessment of how politicians are going to perform over the next Parliament," he said.

Mr Cohen announced that "as the third force in NSW politics", the Greens would address areas outside core environmental issues, including public health, education, and transport and development.

He said they would campaign to end funding to the wealthiest private schools and to improve pay and conditions for teachers in the public system.

They would seek to improve public transport by luring drivers to trains, buses and even light rail. Their public health policy would emphasise community health and improvement of the public health system.

The Greens would also move to have planning laws overhauled, putting development assessors on the public payroll.